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Giant panda gives birth to twins at Vienna Zoo

Posted: 6:34 AM, Aug 16, 2016

Updated:2016-08-16 10:54:35Z

By:
The Associated Press

Copyright Associated Press

<p>In this grab taken from video provided by Tiergarten Schoenbrunn on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, Yang Yang the panda cradles her new cub. It turns out that the giant panda that gave birth at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo last week was hiding a tiny little secret — an extra cub. The zoo originally announced the birth of a one cub Aug. 7. On Tuesday, Aug. 16 it said mother Yang Yang actually bore twins, her fourth and fifth cubs after Fu Long, Fu Hu and Fu Bao. (Tiergarten Schoenbrunnn via AP)</p>

VIENNA (AP) — The giant panda that gave birth at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo last week was hiding a tiny little secret — an extra cub.

The zoo originally announced the birth of a one cub Aug. 7. On Tuesday it said mother Yang Yang actually bore twins, her fourth and fifth cubs after Fu Long, Fu Hu and Fu Bao.

The fact that it took a while to discover the second cub is not surprising. The birth was observed by camera only. And newborn pandas are tiny: The cub whose birth was announced last week was just 10 centimeters (4 inches) long and weighed 100 grams (3.5 ounces).

The Schoenbrunn Zoo says no other European zoo has managed to breed giant pandas by natural means.

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